In the Panamanian island chain of Bocas del Toro, theft is a problem on some beaches. During the week of my visit in 2008, one couple described being approached by two young men who “asked” for their wallet. They carried no weapon, but their demeanor was intimidating enough — and the travelers sufficiently isolated on their […]

This is not a particularly well structured post. It’s more a series of scattered thoughts, and an excuse to post a photo juxtaposition of two major figures in American history, facing each other. Keeping that in mind… History sometimes trots along at a steady pace, and all seems mostly well, until it trips up […]

There are places on a map — and which have parallels within oneself — that feel like a closed door, or a hard line. Lines before which you stop, perhaps for days on end, not knowing entirely what to do. You feel foreign, even to yourself. You look back, retracing how you got to this point. […]

One of the best routes I’ve ever flown was on Qatar Airways, traveling from Los Angeles to Doha. It was a 15.5-hour flight, and earlier this year I posted a photo essay of the journey. From Doha I would continue on to Bali. First, however, I wanted to see a little of Qatar, this small Persian Gulf […]

Among the many topics I photograph is school kids, and my portfolio leans more toward girls than boys. Why? At least part of the answer, I think, is that girls tend to be gentler, kinder, and more inspiring. Also, I can’t recall ever being attacked or shot at by a school girl, or given the middle finger. […]

I met Noa through Couchsurfing in October 2010 in Jerusalem, where she and her two flatmates hosted me in their apartment for several days. Since then Noa has moved to Tel Aviv, and I’ve seen her again on a couple occasions — a random encounter on a Tel Aviv sidewalk in 2013, and then again […]

Sometimes you sip coffee to ingest the caffeine, to wake up and begin another day. Other times you put that cup to your lips and, while gazing beyond the rim (perhaps at a landscape, a person, or simply into miles of Himalayan air), you lick a wound and try to mend. The latter was once […]

Taking offense at the ticket price posted at the front entrance to the Potala Palace — it was 100 yuan (about $12), almost twice what I had paid to see Beijing’s Forbidden City — I turned to Plan B. Plan B was not very complicated. I would simply walk a circle around the palace and […]

After World War I, while stationed in what is now Pakistan, T.E. Lawrence wrote to a friend back home, “I do not want to meet my past, round some future turn in the road.” Lawrence, better known by many as Lawrence of Arabia, didn’t much care for his past; he certainly didn’t want to be […]

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